The next round of secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement negotiations begin today in Dallas, Texas. Once again, civil society and other public stakeholder representatives will be shut out of the official meetings, despite the vast impact this international agreement will have on economies and societies around the world. A number of organizations have stakeholder events planned around the week of negotiations, but we are still denied the ability to even view the current content of the TPP, and therefore it's extremely limiting for us to address the likely impact of TPP on the millions of citizens it will affect.
Public Citizen has released this parodic video to help raise public awareness about the TPP and to demand transparency in its negotiation process.
EFF opposes the creation of new global intellectual property enforcement rules that target the Internet through secretive agreements negotiated behind closed doors between a handful of trading partners. The leaked U.S. intellectual property chapter from the February 2011 draft of TPP made clear that its proponents want to regulate online expression and create legal frameworks that encourage Internet intermediaries to police networks and platforms on behalf of private party rightsholders—all without any input from the Internet community or the U.S. technology sector.
But it doesn't have to be that way. If you're in the U.S., you can contact your Congressional representatives and demand the release of the U.S. intellectual property proposal for public review.